Posted by admin pci,Thursday, March 17, 2011
This week we have come across three new mobile phone
applications, all designed to assist with parking in some form or another.
Help2Park is an Android smart phone app that allows
users to locate nearby parking stations. The user can set the radius within
which to search from their current location, and they receive a map showing
nearby parking stations, including addresses, and distances. At this stage it
is not able to detect on-street parking.
Park Circa is an online community, designed to connect
members who are looking for parking with those who have private facilities
available. Whilst the idea of utilising private parking (in driveways or
off-street parking spaces) is not new (see ScoutSpot as an example), Park Circa
links the available spaces with drivers as they are searching for a parking
space.
The new PlugShare app is designed to address a
condition known as ‘range anxiety’ – the anxiety that an electric car driver
might feel about the location of the nearest charging station. The app includes both a directory of
publically available charging stations, as well as a network of friendly
strangers who are willing to offer you a charge.
With all this additional information available on
mobile phones it will be interesting to see how they impact on statistics of
car accidents whilst using a phone….
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Posted by admin pci,Thursday, March 10, 2011
The technology, designed to increase the turnover of
cars, sends an alert to parking officers if a car has overstayed its time in a
parking spot. However, critics of the scheme claim that turnover of the spaces
is already happening, citing a 2010 survey showing that 90 per cent of
motorists left the space within the time restriction.
According to the news article, Moreland’s parking
revenue is currently around $4 million per annum, with the sensors expected to
generate an additional $1 to $1.5 million per year, at a cost of about $3
million to install (including additional works such as line marking).
Moreland Council have indicated that they are planning
further developments including the integration of live signage to point drivers
to available spaces, as well as the development of web and mobile phone
applications to allow motorists to find a space. It will be interesting to see
how the SFPark project goes in San Francisco as a base template for other
councils to follow.
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Posted by admin pci,Thursday, March 10, 2011
The study essentially concludes that the city does not
enforce appropriately its parking ordinances, and suggests that the city
commence doing so immediately. The consultant recommends that the city should focus
on issuing warnings to first-time offenders and issue steep fines to drivers
after the third warning.
The study was commissioned to analyse parking in the
downtown area as part of a greater economic feasibility plan being carried out
by the city, in collaboration with the Havre de Grace Main Street organisation.
It involved hourly checks of about 1,000 spaces, both
on- and off-street, during weekday hours.
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Posted by admin pci,Thursday, March 10, 2011
New York City officials have recently issued an
Expressions of Interest document, calling on investors to identify ways to extract
more revenue from city assets, including its parking meters and garages, real
estate and infrastructure, while reducing costs.
The EOI is seeking ideas on how to develop new sources
of revenue and restrain costs, as officials confront a projected deficit of
almost $5 billion, or 6.8 percent, on an estimated $71.6 billion fiscal 2013
budget.
According to the city’s Management and Budget office,
in 2010 the New York City treasury reaped more than $140 million from its 49,989
parking meters and 48,854 mini-meters. In the same year the city also collected
about $575 million in parking violation fines.
Whilst an unconventional approach, we look forward to
the outcomes of this venture by New York City and applaud the effort to apply
commercial principles to property management. It will be interesting to see
what level of ownership and control will be demanded by the private sector in
exchange for the security of additional revenue streams.
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Posted by admin pci,Wednesday, March 02, 2011
“This
legislation passed the Appropriations Committee this month and now goes to the
full Assembly. The measures are part of a five-bill package creating tax
incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles and the installation of
charging stations. One bill would require them at rest areas along certain
state highways. ICSC opposes the bill mandating installations at new shopping
centres and another bill that bars issuance of shopping centre development
permits unless at least 5 percent of the parking facility includes these
stations.”
While the ICSC supports the intent of the legislation
in improving the environment and provide a service to consumers, it disagrees
with the forced mandate to include the charging stations in all new
developments – they claim that this is something that should be done
voluntarily by shopping centre management.
We agree with the ICSC position: there needs to be greater clarity as
electric vehicle sales increase as to how and by whom the recharging stations
will be managed, what the costs are, how they will be financed, etc. If a
switch to electric vehicles is to be encouraged, it would seem
counter-productive to burden the cost of parking for these vehicles with the
infrastructure to provide the recharging unit. On the other hand, property
owners may not (at least at this stage) be prepared to underwrite the
investment required. Interesting food for thought….
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Posted by admin pci,Wednesday, February 23, 2011
A motion on the agenda of the Davenport City Council
next week directs the council to remove all on-street parking meters downtown,
increase monthly fees in the city-owned parking stations (called ‘parking ramps’) by $5, and prepare
an ordinance that will increase parking ticket fines through a sliding scale. A
first violation would cost $20, jumping to $40 for a second and $50 for three
or more parking violations for exceeding the two-hour free limit.
According to an article on the Quad City Times site, the
meter issue was at the centre of a lengthy and animated budget discussion
earlier this winter. Free parking downtown - which was instituted as a pilot
program in late 2009 - exacerbated a revenue problem facing the parking
program. Between lost meter revenue, fewer people leasing off-street spaces because
they can park on the street for free and fewer tickets being issued for
overtime parking, the city is bringing in a half-million dollars less in
parking revenue. Meanwhile, the city owes $600,000 on the general obligation
bonds it issued to construct the parking stations.
The majority of councillors were swayed by downtown
merchants and others who said long-term growth has been stunted by the parking
policy. Without the parking fee impediment, they argued, more people will shop,
eat, visit and choose to open businesses downtown, creating more tax revenue
for the city – and making up for the lost revenue stream from the parking
meters.
Parking Today’s blog picked up the story, and we would
like to add our support to the comments published in the blog. It is expected
that the next stories to come from Davenport following the removal of the paid
on-street parking will include “lack of parking availability on the street”, “overly
aggressive parking enforcement is killing downtown”, “employees and commuters taking
up all the parking spots” and “parking garages are underutilised”.
This is an important lesson for those Australian
councils who are in the process of planning their parking strategies, emphasising
the need to do the homework right before embarking on the roller coaster of
parking meters.
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Posted by admin pci,Thursday, February 10, 2011
A
three-page feature in Businessweek Magazine has been published on the car parking industry, focusing
initially on the fall of reserved parking in Hollywood, and office parking
generally. Contributed to by the International Parking Institute’s Parking Matters program, it’s a positive piece that will hopefully be a step in
the right direction for raising the awareness and positivity towards the
parking industry.
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Posted by admin pci,Thursday, February 10, 2011
The US Census Bureau has recently released data showing
that the percentage of workers who car pool has dropped by almost half since
1980.
Factors contributing to the decline in car pooling are
thought to be a greater number of people driving, companies being more spread
out, Americans being wealthier across the board, and cars becoming relatively
cheaper to own. Somewhat ironically, the frustration of the traffic will often
drive people to commute alone, preferring to manage the stress of congestion by
themselves.
According to the NY Times, the sharp decline has
confounded efforts by urban planners, who over the years have tried to
encourage the practice by setting aside highway lanes for car-poolers, as well
as offering incentives like discounted parking.
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Posted by admin pci,Thursday, February 10, 2011
ReasonTV, a website and video production company
dedicated to ‘bringing you stories about freedom’, has produced a great video
about Donald Shoup and his economics-based theories of parking.
Professor Shoup points out that, "just because the driver doesn't pay for
parking doesn't mean the cost goes away." In addition to making it harder to find a spot when
you need one, "free" parking exacerbates other problems, from
pollution to traffic congestion. Using the power of market pricing, Shoup
explains how to fix the parking mess in three steps.
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Posted by admin pci,Wednesday, February 02, 2011
A camera-based ‘Find You Car’ system has been launched
In Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Place. Shoppers can simply type in their registration
number into a kiosk touch screen, which then displays a photo of their car and
its location. According to system
developers, consumers are more likely to return to shopping centres if they
don't have to worry about parking hassles, claiming the systems typically lead
to a 3% to 5% increase in customer visits.
The original article, published on the Los Angeles
Times website, raises a number of privacy concerns about the recording of video
footage and vehicle registration data required by the system. A response to the
article posted on the Gizmodo site brings a little perspective to the issue.
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